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More than 500 migrants arrive in Italy as rescue ships dock

More than 500 migrants arrive in Italy as rescue ships dock
The Geo Barents rescue ship carrying on board rescued migrants in the mediterranean sea is dock at the Salerno harbor, Italy, Sunday, Dec. 11, 2022. (MSF Via AP)
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Updated 11 December 2022
Reuters

More than 500 migrants arrive in Italy as rescue ships dock

More than 500 migrants arrive in Italy as rescue ships dock
Updated 11 December 2022
Reuters

ROME: Italy, which has vowed a tough line on immigration, took in more than 500 migrants on Sunday as two charity rescue ships were allowed to dock at ports in the south of the country after several days at sea in bad weather.
The Geo Barents ship, operated by the Doctors without Borders (MSF) charity and which had 248 migrants aboard, arrived in Salerno in the southwestern region of Campania, MSF said.
On the other side of the country, the Humanity 1, another rescue vessel run by the charity SOS Humanity, docked in the port city of Bari after the Italian authorities agreed to grant it permission.
The journey had been very tough and the ship had faced three-meter high waves and strong winds, SOS Humanity said in a tweet, confirming its arrival with 261 migrants on board.
How to respond to requests for help from the charity boats that pick up migrants in the Mediterranean is a challenge for Italy’s new right-wing government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Tensions flared with neighbor France last month after the French took in a boat that had been turned away by Italy.
Italian interior ministry sources said the decision to allow the two ships to dock was based on the poor weather conditions and the risks faced by those on board, rather than representing a change of policy.
It accuses the charity ships of making it easier for economic migrants to reach Italy and playing into the hands of people traffickers.
The ministry was working on new regulations to protect Italy’s borders and halt the people smugglers, the sources said.
A 14-year-old boy, who was traveling alone, had been airlifted from the Geo Barents to Sicily after suffering acute abdominal pain, MSF said on Friday.
On Wednesday, a baby was born on the same vessel and later flown with his mother and three siblings to Italy.

Topics: Italy migrants Ship

Fears rise that UK plans to move Afghans from hotels could leave many homeless

Fears rise that UK plans to move Afghans from hotels could leave many homeless
Updated 28 March 2023
Arab News

Fears rise that UK plans to move Afghans from hotels could leave many homeless

Fears rise that UK plans to move Afghans from hotels could leave many homeless
  • Govt to offer over 9,000 people new accommodation, move all Afghan refugees from hotels by end of year
  • Move comes as PM Rishi Sunak steps up efforts to pass into law new illegal immigration bill
Updated 28 March 2023
Arab News

LONDON: Fears are rising that Afghan refugees in the UK could become homeless over new plans to move them from hotel accommodation.

The government is set to offer the refugees new housing, giving those temporarily in hotels a minimum of three months to move out, in a bid to move all Afghan refugees from hotels by the end of the year.

There are currently around 9,000 Afghans living in hotels in the UK at a cost to the taxpayer of £1.2 million ($1.47 million) per day.

Government sources sought to assuage fears that thousands could be made homeless and forced to turn to local authorities for support, adding that “all individuals and families” would be helped into permanent homes “regardless of whether they choose their offer of accommodation.”

There has been frustration in some quarters of Whitehall that Afghan families have turned down permanent accommodation in some parts of the UK because they preferred to live somewhere else, holding out for “better” options to become available.

One source told The Times: “Eighteen months after we invited these people to Britain, many still find their lives on hold living in hotel rooms.

“We will be announcing a new support package to help them move into homes so they can build a proper future.”

Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council support organization, told The Guardian: “We are deeply concerned about many elements of these plans, in particular the risk that they could lead to people who fled the Taliban in Afghanistan being left homeless and destitute on the streets of Britain.

“This is not how those who were promised a warm welcome in the UK should be treated. Hotels are not the right place for refugees to live, but the fact that thousands of Afghans have been left in them for months on end is a consequence of government mismanagement and a failure to work successfully in partnership with local councils and other agencies to find suitable housing.”

Peymana Assad, a Labour councilor of Afghan origin from London, told The Guardian that the government had “failed on promises” made to Afghan refugees.

“With no proper plan in place to house Afghans, they have wasted taxpayers’ money on hotels, held Afghan refugee lives in limbo, caused untold damage to the mental well-being of individuals who stood side by side with British troops in Afghanistan, to then, in the end, throw these Afghan families out into the wilderness of homelessness, in the country they were brought to, not out of choice but necessity,” she said.

A further 50,000 asylum-seekers from other countries are also currently in hotels across the country, with different plans being drawn up for their future accommodation.

Two Royal Air Force bases, at Scampton in Lincolnshire and Wethersfield in Essex, have been identified as potential future housing sites for them.

The plans are set to be announced as the UK government steps up efforts to pass into law a new bill on illegal immigration.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has courted controversy after pledging to stop the flow of small boats carrying migrants illegally across the English Channel, with plans such as swift deportations, including to Rwanda, and permanent bans from entering the UK for people found to have done so against the law, to be introduced.

One amendment proposed for the bill suggests putting blocks on courts’ ability to prevent deportations, while Dunja Mijatovic, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, has suggested the proposals risk breaking international law.

Earlier this week Sunak told MPs: “It’s also important that we abide by our international obligations. This is a country and a government that does follow the law. Of course, that’s important.”

He added, though, that the bill would be “a tough piece of legislation, the likes of which we’ve never seen.”

Topics: United Kingdom (UK) Afghan refugees rishi sunak

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Zelensky visits two Ukrainian towns recaptured from Russians

Zelensky visits two Ukrainian towns recaptured from Russians
Updated 28 March 2023
Reuters

Zelensky visits two Ukrainian towns recaptured from Russians

Zelensky visits two Ukrainian towns recaptured from Russians
  • Video footage posted online by Zelenskiy's office showed him visiting Okhtyrka and Trostyanets in Sumy
  • "Our people proved that this occupier will be defeated by us, by our morale, by our Ukrainian character," Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram
Updated 28 March 2023
Reuters

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited two northern towns on Tuesday to celebrate their recapture a year ago in battles which he said showed Ukraine would defeat its Russian invaders.
Video footage posted online by Zelensky’s office showed him visiting Okhtyrka and Trostyanets in Sumy, the sixth region he has visited in the past week — some of them near the front line — as expectations of a Ukrainian counter-offensive rise.
“These days, these weeks, we are celebrating the anniversary of the liberation of our cities and communities in our northern regions,” Zelensky told a small crowd of soldiers and civilians at the railway station in Trostyanets before handing out medals.
Russian forces poured into the Sumy region, which borders Russia, at the start of the invasion in February 2022. They were driven out of the region after about a month of occupation that was met by fierce resistance.
The video footage posted online showed heavily damaged buildings in the towns Zelensky visited. Ukrainian officials say territories close to the border are still regularly bombarded by Russian artillery and air strikes.
“Our people proved that this occupier will be defeated by us, by our morale, by our Ukrainian character. Our people proved it, our warriors proved it,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram under the footage of his visit to Sumy.
The Russian invasion has been bogged down for months in fierce fighting along the eastern front, and Ukraine’s ground forces commander said last week that a Ukrainian counterattack could come “very soon.”

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Volodymyr Zelensky

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Taliban arrest prominent Afghan advocate of girls’ education 

Taliban arrest prominent Afghan advocate of girls’ education 
Updated 28 March 2023

Taliban arrest prominent Afghan advocate of girls’ education 

Taliban arrest prominent Afghan advocate of girls’ education 
  • Afghanistan remains the only country where girls are barred from attending school 
  • Matiullah Wesa, founder of Pen Path, has been advocating women’s access to education  
Updated 28 March 2023
PARWIZ KAROKHAIL

KABUL: A prominent Afghan campaigner for female education has been arrested in Kabul, his brother confirmed on Tuesday, as Afghanistan remains the only country where teenage girls are barred from school. 

Matiullah Wesa is the founder of Pen Path, which since 2009 has been distributing books in conservative rural areas of Afghanistan and advocating among tribal leaders for women’s access to education.   

His campaigning gained momentum last year when the Taliban banned girls from attending secondary school. The authorities said girls would be allowed to return to the classroom after a “comprehensive plan” in accordance with Islamic law, but in December another ban was implemented, barring female students also from universities. 

Wesa was arrested by Taliban security forces on Monday morning. 

“Matiullah Wesa was arrested and taken on Monday after the fajr prayer in Wais Qarni Masque in the fifth police district of Kabul city. So far, they didn’t share any information on which government agency has arrested him,” Wesa’s brother, Attaullah Wesa, told Arab News. 

“We’ve been working for Afghan children’s education since 2009, and we are working for the entire nation of Afghanistan. We are working to teach the next generation to have all their fundamental rights in the future.” 

Neither the Taliban police nor the spokesperson of the government has responded to repeated requests for comments regarding what charges Wesa has been detained on. 

The UN Mission to Afghanistan issued a statement on Tuesday, calling on the Taliban authorities to “clarify his whereabouts, the reasons for his arrest and to ensure his access to legal representation and contact with family." 

The arrest has dealt yet another blow to the already reeling hopes for education in the country. 

Wazir Khan, director of Today Child, a Kabul-based association providing free education to girls and boys in the rural areas of Afghanistan, said that Wesa’s activism aims to give a better chance to the youngest Afghans. 

“The arrest of Wesa will definitely have a negative impact because the youth will lose their morale,” Khan told Arab News. 

Wesa’s friend, journalist Bilal Sarwari, said the activist has been undeterred in his mission, which began during the tenure of the previous Western-backed government, when education services also did not reach the countryside. 

“Matiullah Wesa is someone who has dedicated his life to education. I’ve known him for many, many years. He traveled to every corner of Afghanistan and took many risks,” he said. 

“He is a beacon of hope, he is a hero for the Afghan girls and boys, he has been always advocating for education.” 

Topics: Afghanistan Taliban Matiullah Wesa Pen Path

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Belarus to face more sanctions over nuclear arms plan, Poland says

Belarus to face more sanctions over nuclear arms plan, Poland says
Updated 28 March 2023
Reuters

Belarus to face more sanctions over nuclear arms plan, Poland says

Belarus to face more sanctions over nuclear arms plan, Poland says
  • "This step taken by Russia... will certainly lead to the announcement of additional sanctions," said Polish Prime Minister
  • Lithuania has said that it will call for new sanctions against Moscow and Minsk in response to Russia's plan
Updated 28 March 2023
Reuters

WARSAW: Belarus will certainly face further European sanctions due to a Russian plan to station tactical nuclear weapons in the country, Poland’s prime minister said on Tuesday, as tensions between Warsaw and Minsk hit new highs.
President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday Russia would station the nuclear arms in Belarus, his latest gambit in a worsening stand-off with the West over the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year.
“This step taken by Russia... the announcement of the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus, will certainly lead to the announcement of additional sanctions, the level of sanctions will be much more severe for the Lukashenko regime,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a news conference in Bucharest, referring to the Belarusian president.
The United States, the world’s other leading nuclear superpower, has reacted cautiously to Putin’s statement, with a senior Biden administration official saying there were no signs Moscow planned to use its nuclear weapons.
However, Lithuania has said that it will call for new sanctions against Moscow and Minsk in response to Russia’s plan.
Morawiecki said he was in daily talks with other European Union leaders about an 11th package of sanctions against Russia and that it would include more measures targeting Belarus, a close ally of Moscow.
Relations between Warsaw and Minsk were strained even before the war in Ukraine made them allies of opposing sides in the conflict.
Poland accuses Belarus of orchestrating a migrant crisis along its borders which reached a peak in 2021, though migrants continue to arrive at the frontier today. Minsk denies pushing migrants toward the border.
The two neighbors are also in dispute over the jailing of a journalist of Polish origin in Belarus and the vandalism of Polish graves in the country.
Amid the deteriorating ties, Poland closed one of its key border crossings with Belarus in February, a move Minsk has condemned.
On Tuesday, Morawiecki said Poland was considering further limitations on cross-border traffic.
“We border Belarus and, as part of our bilateral relations, we are considering tightening the parameters of passenger and freight traffic in order to send a signal that we do not accept actions that serve Russia in its aggressive actions in Ukraine.”

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict belarus nuclear Poland sanctions

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France braces for violence in new wave of pension protests

France braces for violence in new wave of pension protests
Updated 28 March 2023
AP

France braces for violence in new wave of pension protests

France braces for violence in new wave of pension protests
  • Macron’s move this month further galvanized the protest movement
  • Violence has since flared and thousands of tons of stinking garbage have piled up on Paris' streets as sanitation workers strike
Updated 28 March 2023
AP

PARIS: Protests and strikes against unpopular pension reforms kicked off again Tuesday across France, with police security ramped up amid government warnings that radical demonstrators intended “to destroy, to injure and to kill.”
Concerns that violence could mar the demonstrations prompted what Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin described as an unprecedented deployment of 13,000 officers, nearly half of them concentrated in the French capital.
After months of upheaval, an exit from the firestorm of protest triggered by President Emmanuel Macron ‘s changes to France’s retirement system looked as far away as ever. Despite fresh union pleas hat the government pause its hotly contested push to raise France’s legal retirement age from 62 to 64, Macron seemingly remained wedded to it.
The French leader previously used a special constitutional power to ram the reform past legislators without allowing them a vote. His move this month further galvanized the protest movement. Violence has since flared and thousands of tons of stinking garbage have piled up on Paris’ streets as sanitation workers strike.
“Everybody is getting madder,” said Clément Saild, a train passenger at Paris’ Gare de Lyon railway station, where tracks were temporarily invaded and blocked Tuesday by protesting workers.
He said he supports the strikes despite their impact on transportation and other services.
“I am 26, and I wonder if I will ever retire,” he said.
Another passenger, Helene Cogan, 70, said: “French people are stubborn and things are getting out of hand.”
The wave of protests Tuesday marked the 10th time since January that unions have called on workers to walk out and for demonstrators to flood the nation’s streets against Macron’s retirement changes, which are a key priority of his second term as president.
His government argues that France’s pension system will dive into deficit without reform, because of the lower birth rates and longer life expectancy in many richer nations. Macron’s opponents say additional funding for pensions could come from other sources, without having to make workers retire later.
Demonstrations got underway peacefully Tuesday morning, with large crowds in multiple cities. But police braced for violence later in the day. The interior minister said more than 1,000 “radical” troublemakers, some from overseas, could latch on to marches in Paris and elsewhere.
“They come to destroy, to injure and to kill police officers and gendarmes. Their goals have nothing to do with the pension reform. Their goals are to destabilize our republican institutions and bring blood and fire down on France,” the minister said Monday in detailing the policing.
Some protesters, human rights campaigners and Macron’s political opponents allege that police officers have used excessive force against demonstrators. A police oversight body is investigating multiple claims of wrongdoing by officers.
The striking railway workers outside Gare de Lyon marched behind a banner that alleged: “The police mutilates. We don’t forgive!”
Macron’s opponents are urging him to cool tempers by backing down. Union leader Laurent Berger appealed Tuesday for a pause in implementing the retirement reform and for mediation.
“If we want to avoid tensions — and I want to avoid them — — what the trade unions are proposing is a gesture to calm things down,” he said. “It must be seized.”
But government spokesman Olivier Veran said mediation wasn’t needed for unions and the government to talk to each other.
The latest round of protests prompted Macron to indefinitely postpone a planned state visit this week by King Charles III.
Veran insisted, however, that France remains a welcoming place for all non-royal visitors.
“Life goes on,” he said.

Topics: France French President Emmanuel Macron pension protest

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